Presidential envoy to embark on US humanitarian trip

Presidential envoy Fredrick Chien (錢復) is heading a delegation to the US to express Taiwan's condolences to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over the Sept. 11 attacks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

After briefing the delegation yesterday evening, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) told the press that Chien would donate US$1 million to the victims of the attack on behalf of the government.

Chien is also scheduled to meet members of Congress and relatives of firefighters and policemen who lost their lives in the World Trade Center, the ministry said.

But Chien and his seven-member delegation are not scheduled to meet top administration officials.

"Chien will meet New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and some congressmen, but he has no plans to meet with ranking US government officials since this is only a humanitarian trip," ministry spokeswoman Katharine Chang (張小月) said.

"The delegates' aim is to show Taiwan's humanitarian concerns over the terrorist attacks," she said.

The nine-day trip, which starts tomorrow, had been scheduled for mid-October, but was put off after the US launched retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan on Oct. 7.

Chien, the head of the Control Yuan, will represent President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Chien was formerly Taipei's de facto ambassador to the US.

Visits to the US by top Taiwanese officials always provoke anger in Beijing, which seeks to limit Taiwan's profile on the international stage at every opportunity.

In the face of Chinese opposition, Washington allowed Chen to make transit stops in the US on his way to and from a Latin American tour earlier this year.

President Chen met Giuliani in New York during his stopover in that city.